Virginia redistricting fight begins

Senate and House release proposals

March 29, 2011|By Kimball Payne, kpayne@dailypress.com | 247-4765

Raw election data and precinct by precinct descriptions of the proposed redrawn General Assembly districts went online late Tuesday, giving Virginia lawmakers and political insiders the first real glimpse of redistricting at the local level.

The Virginia Senate posted demographic and election data on the redistricting website Tuesday evening and the House of Delegates unveiled a bill offering precinct descriptions of the new maps that lawmakers will be haggling over when they return to Richmond early next week.

Senate Majority Leader Richard Saslaw, D-Fairfax, said the Senate districts are politically competitive for both parties with 28 districts that backed Republican Gov. Bob McDonnell in 2009 and 23 districts that were carried by Democratic Gov. Timothy M. Kaine in 2005.

Saslaw expressed pride the maps were produced in such a short time and noted that House Republicans have shot down effort to create a bipartisan redistricting process in recent years.

Senate Minority Leader Thomas K. Norment, R-James City, called Democratic efforts at bipartisanship "hollow" and slammed the maps as "hyper-partisan." Norment said Senate Republicans would offer up their own proposals.

"Senate Democrats have crafted an outrageously partisan redistricting plan that will go down as one of the most notorious examples of gerrymandering history," he said.

Meanwhile House Democrats said the House Republican plan released Tuesday appeared designed to suppress voter turnout and House Minority Leader Ward Armstrong, D-Henry, said Republicans could expect to hear voter frustration during public hearings later this week.

"Voters don't want to see their communities split up in a way that creates confusion about which side of their street votes for which Delegate," Armstrong said.

Lawmakers on the House and Senate Privileges and Elections committees have been poring through 2010 Census data to account for massive population growth in Northern Virginia over the last ten years. Local cities and counties have not kept pace, leaving most lawmakers needing to take on new voters. Hampton Roads lost one Senate district in Virginia Beach and one House district in Norfolk according to the proposed plans.

The Census left lawmakers with specific population targets for each level of government. The 100 House districts are expected to include about 80,000 voters each. The 40 Senate districts are supposed to have 200,000 voters each and the target population for each of Virginia's 11 congressional districts is 727,000 voters.

The Senate maps weren't available early Tuesday evening leaving geographic questions, but the Senate demographic and election data offers some local insight.

Norment has a proposed district packed with voters who gave McDonnell 70 percent of the vote in 2009, when the Republican swept into office by 17 points. Conversely, Sen. Mamie Locke, D-Hampton, has a proposed Peninsula district filled with scores of Democrats who gave Democrat Creigh Deeds 60 percent of the vote.

Sen. John Miller, D-Newport News, used to represent parts of Newport News, York County and Hampton and all of Poquoson. Miller's proposed district gave McDonnell a 54 to 46 percent edge over Deeds.